Quote Originally Posted by hmmmm
I have a room that is 14 x 23' and I'm trying to get it to sound better with some acoustic treatments. The room has laminate flooring over concrete and it definately echoes. It's in the basement with 8 foot ceilings and has one tiny window. I say that because curtains aren't much of an option. I have one oversized couch and chair, a large foamchair, and a 6' x 8' area rug and lots of pillows. I need suggestions on what else to do. Even though it is the "man room," my wife does go down there and we have friends over so I can't put those wierd looking foam things around the room where they are visable. I don't have a problem with bass boominess but when you clap it echoes.
I was going to replace the rug and make it a little larger but what type of pad should I put under it to help? I'm also putting a 5' long painting on the wall and was hoping that might help a little because it is on canvas. Are there things you can hide in the room that would help? Thanks for any suggestions!

When you have Planar speakers like I do, is room treatments.

There are remedies; A rug will help damp the room, but still doesn't directly address slap echo. You want to "break" the echo The idea is to breakup the parallels in such a way that the soundwave doesn't get reinforced. It's not too hard if you have some furniture in the room to move it around so it doesn't allow too much wall-opposing-wall exposure. Second the "rear wall" behind your listening position should be as absorptive as possible. This can be difficult to do, but worth it. It was hard to do in my room, but I've figured a way by adding a large oil painting to the wall. While decorative, it's actually hiding a bunch of acoustic absorbent foam.